Aerial Landscapes
1954 – 2006
Colour aerial photograph – 1979
Cemetery in red outline
In 1958, after 3065 burials had occurred there, The Cemetery at Woodlands reached its maximum capacity and was closed.
The cemetery had never been a public place. As part of the old asylum grounds it was effectively out of sight and out of bounds for anyone other than the residents and staff of the institution. The people, that were buried there, died in care (isolated from family), and were, for the most part, wards of the province.
Although this burial ground was in active use for thirty-six years, with an average of two burials a week, over the course of this project I have been unable to locate even one photograph recording any of those events.
I have, however, found a number of aerial photographs which incorporate the Woodlands grounds and the cemetery within them. Viewed in sequence, enlarged details from these 1954, 1976, 1979 and 2006 aerial photographs are an illustrative timeline which clearly reveals the impact which time and human intervention has had on the cemetery. They also reflect most poignantly on the public attitude, at the time, towards the remains of those all-but-forgotten persons who were buried there.
